Leopold
Stokowski:
Making Music Matter

Curated by Marjorie Hassen

Otto E. Albrecht Music Library
University of Pennsylvania

Stokowski and Scriabin's Le poème de
l'extase

In 1922 Stokowski wrote that "it is useless to speak to
many people of Scriabin's Poème d'Extase. . . as they dismiss this
remarkable work with a contemptuous muttering of 'decadent' or 'immoral'. It is one of
the most highly organized and complex pieces of orchestral polyphony which exists."
These comments are likely related to his experience in Philadelphia three years
earlier, when the work was first programmed. During one of the evening performances a
noticeable number of concert-goers made their exit from the Academy of Music before the
conductor gave the downbeat. At the conclusion of the work, Stokowski addressed the
audience from the stage, sharing his disappointment with their behavior and complaining
of the impossibility "for any orchestra to do its best work in such an atmosphere of
hostility."